Aussie below 74 U.S. cents on broad greenback strength

The U.S. dollar surge saw the Aussie drop three-quarters of a cent overnight after OPEC agreed to freeze oil production at 32.5 million barrels per day.

At the Asian open on Thursday, the local unit was trading at 73.91 U.S. cents, down from 74.74 U.S cents at Wednesday's close.

The Greenback surged on broad-based impetus following better than expected U.S. economic data, benchmark crude's nine percent rally following the OPEC deal and the lift in U.S. 10-year bond yields.

"Higher U.S. treasury yields are reducing the attractiveness of the relatively high-yielding Australian dollar Australian bonds," Commonwealth Bank of Australia chief currency strategist Richard Grace said in a note to clients.

"Overseas participants also paid more attention to the weakness in Australian building approvals data, which showed multi-unit building approvals down 23.5 percent year-on-year, confirming the downturn in construction activity."

There's also growing concern about apartment oversupply in Sydney and Melbourne which is applying pressure on the banking sector, and slowing Australian GDP, Grace said.

At 0930 local time (AEDT), the Australian dollar dropped further to 73.84 U.S. cents. Endit